ABSTRACT
§ 1 . The psychology found in the writings of the Fathers has its root in the teaching of the New Testament, principally in that of St. Paul. The doctrine of St. Paul is itself a product of earlier speculation: it embodies older views and actually contributes little that is new. The characteristics of the new direction of thought are determined by the fact that rationalism gives way to spiritualism, the scientific to the religious standpoint. To say that Christian doctrine is primarily ethical is to say very little. Plato had used the ethical norms in a manner equally emphatic. The real difference between Platonism and Christianity is to be found in the difference between Hebraic and Greek temperaments, between the desire to feel strongly, to nourish lofty passions, and the (Greek) desire to subdue passion by reason. The Stoics interpreted the mixed mood of their age rightly when they declared that restraint was the essential element of goodness, and yet saw in rational joy the completion of life. The best introduction to patristic pyschology is the ambiguous language of St. Paul; for here we are at the fountain-head of all the doctrines which treat the soul from the point of view of Christian Redemption, and which, therefore, find the questions of origin and destiny most important. The ideas of eternal life, of conquest over sin achieved partly by works and partly by grace, and of individual worth are the ideas that control discussion. The details are selected to suit these ends: at first science and tradition are neglected; but each succeeding writer adds new material, and as point after point is added the accumulated wisdom of previous ages is absorbed into the body of doctrine until the treatment becomes as comprehensive as we find it in Augustine or Thomas Aquinas.
